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Towns of Australia, Murrumbateman (2026)

08/10/2023

Jugiong, New South Wales
Population: 255
Famous for: being a great rest stop on the Hume Highway
Back in 2015 Jugiong was another of those places destined for anonymity. The Hume Highway hadn't gone through town for years, leaving buildings like the local pub shells of their former selves.
Enter Liz and Kate. The mother-daughter duo bought the Sir George, rebuilding and renovating into a destination in its own right. Add in some accommodation, a rebuilt local store with a thriving cafe and local produce up for sale, and you've now got a small village that you're mad not to visit on the drive to Melbourne or Wagga and beyond. There's even an electric car charger to give extra motivation to pull in.
Outside the main tourist area the town is still quite sleepy. The main park has a memorial to Sergeant Edmund Parry, who was killed by bushrangers in 1864. Otherwise the town's main claim to fame was that cricketer Richie Benaud lived here as a youngster.

03/10/2023

Hall, Australian Capital Territory
Population: 298
Famous for: being part of but pre-dating the ACT
Built on Ngunnawal land and founded in 1882, Hall is that rarest of places: ACT, but not actually Canberra. As such you'll find a character to this village not really present in Canberra itself, even if the capital's development means suburbia is only just round the corner.
Despite being considered as the site for the national capital Hall has never really developed that much. Water only got connected back in 1967, while the movement of the Barton Highway west means most travellers will never pop in to this charming village. The main street is filled with repurposed older buildings, while those of an active disposition can walk from the northeastern edge of town up to One Tree Hill on the NSW/ACT border. There you'll find views over both the booming Gungahlin suburbs and the fields of southern NSW.
Take a stop, check it out, and enjoy one of the few places that can be considered "Regional ACT".

18/09/2023

Murrumbateman, New South Wales
Population: 3,607
Famous for: wines and being just outside of Canberra
It's easy to overlook Murrumbateman. Located on the Barton Highway north of Canberra, it's either the first town out or the last town coming in to the capital. There's a park, service station and some hotels on the highway, and that's pretty much all anyone sees.
Off the highway the town has two distinct parts. One is the older part, which is relatively spaced out. This includes the old school house, which has a couple of outhouses still intact and brings to mind Tina Turner's opening lines of Nutbush City Limits. On the northern edge of town is a suburban development, with smaller blocks and newer houses as people make the most of the cheaper real estate out here.
It's also worth mentioning the Murrumbateman wineries. Drive down any rush and you'll see brown tourist signs pointing you towards the ones scattered around town - something plenty of Canberrans make the most of.

16/09/2023

Gundaroo, New South Wales
Population: 1,233
Famous for: not being where the capital is
Back when deciding where to put the national capital, the powers that be looked at a number of places in southeastern New South Wales. One of these was Gundaroo, which was looked at, discarded, and went back into a kind of anonymity. Which worked out pretty well for us today, for Gundaroo is full of beautifully restored colonial buildings that you just don't see that often.
How old are we talking? Well, the Royal Hotel in town dates back to 1865, although the experience then would be a lot different to what it is now. There's a heritage walk to guide you around, but all you really need to do is walk down the main street with a full phone/camera battery and enough space to hold hundreds of photos. Most of these buildings date back to the late 1800s, so guaranteed you'll be taking plenty of pics!

12/09/2023

Sutton, New South Wales
Population: 1,556
Famous for: a bakery
Popular with cyclists and day trippers from nearby Canberra, Sutton is a small village just north of the Federal Highway. If you didn't know about it then there's every chance it would never appear on your radar other than as the last exit before hitting the ACT.
To be fair, there's not a lot to the place. The local bakery is frequented by motorists, cyclists and pets on a regular basis, with the road into Gungahlin quieter and less worrisome to cycle than the Federal Highway shoulder. There's also regular markets featuring plenty of local produce.

11/09/2023

Kangaroo Valley, New South Wales
Population: 856
Known for: a bridge
One of the great things about travelling is that you come across some amazing places you had no idea existed. One such place is Kangaroo Valley, just northwest of Nowra and up some pretty, winding roads. George Evans, the first European known to see the place, reckoned it had a view "no painter could beautify". Clearly the local Wodi-Wodi people agreed, as they'd been living there for around 20,000 years.
The town itself is well-preserved from colonial times, with a number of stunningly attractive sandstone and timber buildings. The highlight though is the Hampden Bridge over the Kangaroo River. Opened in 1898 after three years worth of construction, today the bridge is the oldest surviving suspension bridge in Australia. Built from timber and sandstone, there's only enough space for one lane and only enough strength for one truck at a time. But when it looks this good, who cares?

07/09/2023

Nerriga, New South Wales
Population: 77
Famous for: gold and bushfires
Want to get from Canberra to Nowra/Jervis Bay, but don't want to deal with the Kings Highway? Chances are you'll pass through Nerriga then on the Old Wool Road. Both the village and the road came around the same time, with the road built to link Braidwood and Goulburn to Jervis Bay so wool could be exported.
Gold was found in 1851 and accelerated Nerriga's growth, with the local pub and school built in the 1860s. The pub's still going but the school is now the local museum. The village suffered badly in the 2019-29 bushfires, with a number of properties destroyed and locals forced to take shelter in the pub, hosing it down to protect from burning embers until the Rural Fire Service arrived.

06/09/2023

Tarago, New South Wales
Population: 510
Famous for: energy sources and not being pronounced like the van
In between two lakes and off the major roads, Tarago is an unusual little village north-east of Canberra. Located near Lake George and Lake Bathurst but not actually on the shores of either, people have been living in the area for at least 20,000 years, with the area being the traditional land of the Ngunnawal people. European settlement dates back to before 1848, when the Loaded Dog Hotel was built. The town was once known as Sherwin's Flats, changing to Tarago when the train station opened in 1884.
In more recent times Tarago was home to a gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc mine at Woodlawn. Today that site is a bioreactor that takes in a large amount of garbage from Sydney. This can power around 10,000 homes in the region.

04/09/2023

Gunning, New South Wales
Population: 604
Famous for: not much. But it should be.
Ever go somewhere where everything just fits? That's Gunning, just north of the Hume Highway west of Goulburn. Driving into town is like driving into a timewarp, where even the newer buildings fit in to the overall aesthetic.
The region was home to the Gundungurra and Ngunnawal people prior to European settlement; land began being sold here in 1838. The train between Sydney and Melbourne still stops here, while the Hume Highway passed through town until 1993.
Drive through Gunning today and it's amazing how well they've preserved the town. Just about every street has a beautifully maintained older building, while noticeably newer ones make an effort to fit in. This isn't something for the tourists either, but just the way they do things here.

30/08/2023

Collector, New South Wales
Population: 251
Famous for: bushrangers. And Some Cafe
Anyone who's travelled the Federal Highway between Canberra and Sydney will be vaguely aware of Collector. It's just north of the highway, and there's some cafe there right? But you continue on because you need to be in Sydney/Canberra, and what's going to be there anyway?
For starters, it's not just some cafe, but Some Cafe. Located in the old general store, the continual stream of people ordering coffees and dingos while I had my own coffee and dingo suggests plenty were either tempted by the signs on the highway, or already knew the place was good.
I don't know how many people walked around town afterwards though; if they didn't then that's their loss. Around the corner is a historic pub called The Bushranger, commemorating the shooting of Constable Samuel Nelson by John Dunn, a member of Ben Hall's gang. There's a memorial there honouring Constable Nelson, as well as one at the Anglican cemetery.
Across from the pub is one of the more unusual pieces of art found in regional Australia. Tony Phantastes' Dreamer's Gate is a unique work, but a controversial one too. The story is that it's under demolition orders, but hasn't been taken down yet despite starting to rust. So you'll probably need to catch that while you still can. Throw in a few lovely old churches and nearby wineries and you've got a few pretty good reasons for breaking up that journey and stopping in.

29/08/2023

Breadalbane, New South Wales
Population: 107
Famous for: once having a railway station, the Hume Highway, and bystanders, but now having none of these.
There's more than a few of these places around Australia: tiny dots on the map now shadows of their former selves once the railway/highway stopped going through town. This is exactly what happened to Breadalbane, with the train station closing in 1974 and the Hume Highway moving south in 1993.
So what's there exactly? There's the Hotel Breadalbane, now a private residence but a lovely old building nonetheless. That's opposite a former service station (again, now a private residence), and next to where the train station once stood. The Main Southern Railway still runs here, but it takes a fair amount of imagination to see where the station was. The school is still going on Breadalbane Road; keep heading south and you'll go past the imaginatively named Wet Lagoon and go under the new Hume Highway towards Collector. There's also St Silas' Anglican Church, a lovely little brick building dedicated to humanitarian Caroline Chisholm.
What's not missed here are the bushrangers. Ben Hall and his gang were notorious around these parts, while the surprisingly long Wikipedia page about Breadalbane Station has a section dedicated to crime there. There'll be a bit more about Ben in Collector though.

28/08/2023

Bundanoon, New South Wales
Population: 2,642
Famous for: Highland gatherings and once being a major tourist destination.
I'm not going to lie - I had zero expectations coming into Bundanoon. Pass through, maybe grab some lunch, then continue on to Moss Vale and Bowral.
But coming into town there was a stop at the Pill Factory, then in the centre there was another stop to close the jaw back up and wonder how I'd never heard of this stunning town before.
Bundanoon is stunning. A lot of that seems to come from being a tourist destination in the early 20th century, before going out of fashion as the car became popular and people could go further.
So where to start? The aforementioned Pill Factory looks like a cross between a barn, a factory and a German guesthouse; the Bundanoon Hotel a grand old English pub. One pulled pork burger at DeliLicious later and it was time to head south to the Morton National Park and the simply sensational views over the Great Dividing Range. There's the annual Brigadoon Highland gatherings as well if you'd like to make an event of it.
But seriously. If you get the chance, head to Bundanoon. Know I'll be back!

Towns of Australia

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